I lived for years in the LES adjacent to “Dimes Square” and I was on the periphery of the art scene.

Not covered in this essay at all is how the cost of living in NYC is dramatically higher than during the “good old days” of 80s and 90s downtown scene.

It was cheap for a reason - my cousin literally had an illegal art squat he paid $0 for - but low rent also changed who was able to be on the scene.

Add-in the skyrocketing costs of private colleges, and the scene increasingly is populated by the children of the very comfortable to the obscenely rich.

And unsurprisingly, those that grow up with status to are far more risk averse and solipsistic as well.

Warhol, Herring and Basquiat did not have trust funds, and it was all for the better.